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Orchestral Suite No 1 in C major, BWV1066

Introduction

For a short while around 1960 it was believed that the highly effective Suite No 1 in C major, BWV1066, was probably spurious, and even so dependable a scholar as the late Karl Geiringer expressed reservations regarding it. Fortunately these doubts have now been put to rest since the identification of the main scribe of the earliest preserved parts—C G Meissner of Gotha—has rendered its attribution to Bach unquestionable. Meissner was one of Bach’s most active copying assistants, and his manuscript is datable to 1723/4.

This composition seems deliberately to reflect the more traditional styles of French dance movements, such as had been included originally by Lully, and also, perhaps significantly, by Bach’s once-removed cousins Johann Bernhard and Johann Ludwig, whose own Ouvertüren Bach was later to have copied in parts for performance in Leipzig; perhaps he owned scores of these already.

In any event, after the tripartite ouverture (in which part 3 is effectively a continuation and conclusion to part 1), there follows a courante (by the 1720s a completely archaic dance, although still a feature of keyboard and other instrumental music), followed by pairs (marked alternativement) of gavottes, minuets and, finally, passepieds. The strong resemblance which the musicologist Peter Holman noticed some years ago between the main theme of the two gavottes and the four-voice sacred song ‘Dir, dir, Jehovah, will ich singen’ which the composer himself wrote into his wife Anna Magdalena’s second music album around 1725 can hardly be a coincidence; it is believed that the song itself is one of Bach’s own compositions.

Recordings

'This new Dyad set now takes pride of place among currently available period performances of these works' (Gramophone)'Captivating performances, stylistically informed, affectionate and spirited. Wholeheartedly recommended' (Gramophone)» More